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High-tech Cuyamaca
College Business & Technology Building greets students for new semester
EL CAJON
– Students back at Cuyamaca College for the start of spring semester are
welcoming the campus’ fourth new building in less than three years, this time a
$28 million business and technology facility housing some of the college’s most
popular programs.
The structure
designed by San Diego archiect LPA, Inc., distinctive for its wedge-shaped
overhang and elevated terrace providing sweeping views of rolling hills and
towering eucalyptus, will house eight programs: computer and information science
(CIS), and its related computer science program; business; economics; paralegal
studies; graphic design; business office technology (BOT), and real estate. With
fall ‘09 enrollment in these programs up by nearly 20 percent from the prior
year, they are among the highest in demand at the college in the East San Diego
County community of Rancho San Diego.
The
44,761-square-foot business and technology building has opened none too soon,
with Cuyamaca College -- like its cross-town sister campus, Grossmont College --
setting another enrollment record. Current enrollment at Cuyamaca is 9,915; at
Grossmont, 20,918.
“Despite massive
state budget cuts in higher education, there are 1,300 more students this spring
semester than a year ago,” said Dr. Cindy L Miles, chancellor of the
Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District to the morning crowd of about 200
at the Jan. 20 grand opening.
Ron Manzoni,
Cuyamaca’s interim president, likened the building’s ribbon-cutting to an
initial public offering of shares on the stock market.
“Welcome to the
Cuyamaca exchange – we are open for business,” he said. “We are excited today to
be opening the newly listed business and technology building with an IPO of
shares in the building’s index on the Cuyamaca campus. And we are even more
pleased to announce, since opening this morning, we are experiencing heavy
buying at a time when other markets are volatile.
“With this opening,
we are serving a total of 3,509 students in this building, taking a total of
9,740 units for spring 2010. This is a 15.7 percent increase – students
certainly know a good buy when they see it!”
Bill Garrett,
Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Governing Board president, hailed
the placement of business and technology programs in the same facility as a
“wonderful synergy,” noting that the new site enables faculty and staff to take
a cross-discipline approach to curriculum.
“This is the kind of
thing that makes East County and the Grossmont-Cuyamaca district so very
special,” he said. “The students — they’re going to love this building.”
Lesley Wideman,
president of the Cuyamaca College Association of Paralegal Students, couldn’t
agree more.
“This beautiful
bulding provides the professional environment that we need and is so really
important to students,” she said.
Mary Sessom,
business and professional studies department coordinator, said prior to the
opening event that the new building provides an environment more conducive to
learning because it consolidates classroom space with computer labs.Having a
more professional setting opens up the possibility of hosting legal workshops
and seminars, said Sessom, an attorney and well known in East County as the
mayor of Lemon Grove.
San Diego-based
Carrier Johnson, Architects, completed the facility’s interior design.
“This helps students
develop networks with attorneys and practicing paralegals,” Sessom said
A considerate
storm
Grand opening
attendees packed a corridor inside the east wing of the facility, where two long
rows of chairs had been set up as a last-minute precaution, in case a blustery
winter storm predicted for that afternoon arrived a little earlier. But like the
proverbial party guest assiduously avoiding being the first to arrive, the storm
politely steered clear of the festivities, only to pelt the campus with rain and
hail hours later.
Karen Lanning, chair
of the Prop. R Citizens Bond Oversight Committee applauded the district and
Gafcon, a construction consuling firm and the district’s manager of Prop. R
construction, for continuing a “strong program run effectively and efficiently,”
transforming the two campuses with 11 major facilities opening in just six
years.
“Cuyamaca College
has taken the opportunity here to put the greatest and latest technology to the
greatest use,” she said about the business and technology building.
Funded by state and
local bonds, the business and technology building is the fourth and final new
facility at Cuyamaca made possible by the passage of Propostion R, the $207
million bond measure approved by East County voters in 2002. Prop. R funds were
also used to build the student center, science and technology center, and
communication arts center at Cuyamaca, in addition to expanding the college’s
automotive technology complex. A library expansion is targeted for completion
this summer.
Greg Differding, CIS
and graphic design coordinator, said the new business and technology facility
provides CIS with additional labs, as well as more network servers and other
computer networking equipment, expanding opportunities for students to reach
more advanced certification levels. A capstone course is expected to be added to
the program in which students will be provided the equipment and tools to build
an entire computer network system – everything from the computers to the servers
and routers.
Connie Elder, dean
of learning and technology resources, said the addition of a video editing room
and two group study rooms in the large computer lab expands mobile learning
opportunities for students, who will now have the equipment and resources to
create instructional multimedia projects, such as audio and video podcasts for
posting on Apple’s iTunes University, accessed via the iTunes Web site.
Accounting
instructor Chris O’Byrne said that in addition to getting away from skunks
nesting underneath the portable trailers that used to house the program,
students will benefit from department and faculty offices being located in one
area.
Dr. Madelaine Wolfe,
a division dean, said the new structure lends a sense of community for business
students, who at long last have a home base.
“Students in the
same major will gain relationships and friendships that will develop from having
a common location,” she said. “Faculty will be able to meet informally to
brainstorm and generally benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience.
These are key factors that increase student success.”
Pat Newman, lead
instructor of the fast-growing business office technology, or BOT, program, said
the new facility provides students a dedicated area with 65 computer stations.
The larger space and its confinement to one area is an improvement from the
past, when the BOT lab had fewer computer stations and was located in two
separate classrooms. The increased capacity for BOT is needed, Newman said,
because of the influx of foreign-language students attracted to the self-paced,
independent learning format of courses in data entry, Internet basics and
Microsoft Office applications.
In keeping with
Cuyamaca’s embracing of “green” technology, the new facility contains
energy-saving features such as low-heat emission glass; reflective roofing to
mitigate heat; high-efficiency heating, cooling and ventilation (HVAC)
equipment; automatic lighting controls; computerized energy systems to regulate
lighting and HVAC, and a computerized water-usage irrigation system.
The facility,
located in Cuyamaca’s northeast sector, sits atop the highest elevation point
on campus, Its location bridging the lower and upper portions of the campus is a
big plus to those with mobility problems, who now have the building’s elevator
and wheelchair-accessible ramps to help them get to the upper campus.
Ending on a high
note
Threatening storm
clouds failed to dampen celebratory spirits. A customry howl greeted the
Cuyamaca Coyote, the campus mascot, as he entered he building to join in the
festivities, which ended with a county proclaimation declaring Jan. 20 Cuyamaca
College Bussiness and Technology Day, an unveiling of a bronze commemorative
plaque, and the cutting of the ribbon – actually some faux paper currency strung
together to reflect the event’s theme of the New York Stock Exchange.
Cuyamaca College is
located at 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in Rancho San Diego. For campus maps and
directions, go to
www.cuyamaca.edu. For more information about the district, go to
www.gcccd.edu
# # #
Intergovernmental Relations, Economic
Development, and Public Information
8800 Grossmont College Drive El Cajon, CA
92020-1799 Phone 619-644-7573 Fax 619-644-7924; www.gcccd.edu |
Fall
'09 
